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    Vostro 1500 Issues - Whine and Hinge Cover... what would you do?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Alchemist, Mar 11, 2008.

  1. Alchemist

    Alchemist Notebook Deity

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    All,

    Overall I really like my Vostro 1500 that I got last week... beautiful screen, fairly tough build, etc. but I have two nagging problems...

    1. Processor Whine
    I had this on my 600m, didnt have it on my e1505 but its back on the 1500. Ironically it seems to be on all the machines ive bought from dell business. Just like others have mentioned... the processor makes a morse code like whining sound. Using RMClock to disable the 'hop up' bios setting fixes the problem but im sure its at a minor loss to battery life.

    I booted from a Ubuntu 7.10 live CD and it doesnt whine in linux, just in vista home premium.

    I talked to dell about this and was told the latest bios upgrade A5 would fix the problem... it didnt (but it did add turbo cache support <g>)

    2. Hinge Cover
    The left hinge looked broke because the hinge cover wont snap into place on the left side fully... its raised a bit. I contacted dell about this and they sent me a new hinge cover which does the same thing. I actually believe this is because the antenna cable runs thru there and its too thick to let the cover close fully.


    So... any ideas on how to proceed? Dell hasnt been able to fix either problem yet... I like the machine otherwise and am not thrilled about sending it back (unless i just return it)... the whine drives me nuts without rmclock and I hate the idea of needing to run an application all the time to keep a brand new machine working properly.


    Any Thoughts?
     
    Alchemist, Mar 11, 2008
    #1
  2. Jakpro

    Jakpro Notebook Evangelist

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    As far as the "whine", I have read many people complain about it, but I have not experienced it. Maybe it is because I keep it on high performance all of the time. I have read a few fixes that people have posted that is supposed to eliminate or reduce the whine. You might search the forums.

    The hinge cover is another story. I have a Vostro 1500 and the fit and finish are outstanding on it. Everything on the case fits together perfectly.

    If Dell cannot fix your case, it will make you not enjoy your computer for the rest of the time that you own it. I would return it.

    I was not happy with the construction of my M1530, so it went back. That was after I went through a great deal of trouble and frustration in getting the LCD panel changed out. However, the tech messed up in changing it out and although the screen was perfect, I was not confident in the machine, so it went back and I bought my Vostro.

    Now, I am trying to get the LCD panel swapped out on this one with the Samsung SEC3157 panel. This time, I am giving Dell one opportunity to get it right. If it does not get done correctly, then it will go back and I will order another brand.

    Ultimately, you have to decide what is right for you.
     
    Jakpro, Mar 11, 2008
    #2
  3. usapetersen

    usapetersen Notebook Enthusiast

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    I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520. I too was experiencing an annoying cpu whine. I found a solution online that fixed the whine.
    Download RighMark CPU Clock Utility (free program)
    http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

    Open rmclock and on the list to the left click "advanced cpu settings"
    Click chipset up top and look for where it says "disable C4 mode"
    Check the box. Restart the computer and shazam! No more noise.
    http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/6831/capturena1.jpg
     
    usapetersen, Mar 11, 2008
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  4. Alchemist

    Alchemist Notebook Deity

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    usapeterson,

    Im using a variation on that now... I have the 'Hop Up' disabled on the Advanced Bios Settings page in RMClock. They both solve the problem in slightly different ways.

    From what ive gathered the cycling into and out of C4 sleep state rapidly causes the whine... and disabling either of those settings fixes it in most cases. Disabling C4 is the not definite... as it cant use it if its not enabled, while the Pop Up makes the processor pop back to full power for an instant instead of poping up to C3 then back to C4 when the processor is idle.

    My problem is that I would prefer not to have to run yet another program at startup to do away with the whine. ;-) It would be nice if you could disable it in the bios so you dont have to run that program every time you boot.

    But at least its not whining at me now.

    In any case it seems to be louder on some notebooks than on others, and is somewhat bios and OS dependent since HP fixed it on theirs with a bios patch, and my machine doesnt whine at all while running UBUNTU.

    Dan
     
    Alchemist, Mar 11, 2008
    #4